On both occasions I was afloat by about 0730h., back on the shore about 0930h. and home again before the hottest part of the day.
On Monday I went to Garrucha, paddled the full length of the seafront, entered the harbour and mooched around in there for a while before retracing my route back again. A bit of an easterly swell hitting the beach made getting afloat a bit tricky - but was achieved without mishap. I was not so lucky landing on my return! Fortunately, at that time of the morning, there weren't too many people around to witness some floundering around at the waters edge. According to my GPS thingy I had paddled about 5 kilometres.
Only one big ship was in the harbour - the Oslo Wave 2 (registered in Singapore) was loading gypsum. This vessel, a general cargo ship of 12993 gross tonnage, had docked in the early hours of that morning - amazing what one can find out by just Googling the name of a ship.
While I was mooching around, a Danish yacht (a large, sleek, fancy looking, plastic thing) left the visitor's berth and headed out to sea, passing near me. The youngish, fit-looking crew of bronzed Nordic yachtsmen showed little interest in an old guy in a tiny inflatable kayak - so I didn't wish them 'bon voyage', as I would have done if they hadn't ignored me.
On Wednesday I went to Mojácar. There was still that easterly swell, so I went to a spot on the seafront where I was certain I could get afloat, and ashore again, without mishap. In a little bay, created behind a stone and concrete mole, there is almost always calm water, whatever the sea is like on the seaward side of the mole. A pleasant couple of hours was spent paddling both ways along the shoreline. There was very little wind when I set off but that freshened later, giving me an opportunity to practice using the drogue I always take with me. It was very restful drifting slowly, held head to wind, along the coast with the drogue deployed. The only mishap on this trip was the loss of a sun hat when I gust of wind whipped it off my head. Despite frantic attempts to fish it out of the water I eventually had to watch it spiralling down into the depths. Should have worn the one with the chinstrap! Another 5 kilometres was covered in this occasion.
Yesterday, when in a newsagents in Albox, I spotted a postcard, an aerial view, of the exact place where I had paddled on Wednesday :-
The seaward corner of that little bay, just behind the mole, is a perfect spot for getting afloat when it is difficult to do so on an open beach.
The last time I took my kayak to this spot was Thursday September 7th. 2017. Several more photos of this place are on the blog of that date.
